Constantin Teașcă

Constantin Teașcă also known as Titi Teașcă (25 September 1922 – 30 July 1996) was a Romanian football player and manager.

Nicknamed "Little Napoleon", Teașcă was known for his controversial training methods for which he would get in conflicts with the players. He was the manager of Romania on two occasions, first in 1962 and then in 1967. He had one experience outside Romania when he managed Turkish side Fenerbahçe from 1970 to 1971. Teașcă has a total of 323 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 120 victories, 64 draws and 139 losses.

Playing career

Constantin Teașcă was born on 25 September 1922 in Giurgiu, Romania, starting to play junior level football in 1932 at local club, Acvila. In 1940 he started to play for Acvila's senior team, being a midfielder, then in 1946 he went to play for Concordia Ploiești. In 1950 he decided to end his playing career at age 28, the highest level he played being the Romanian second league.

Managerial career

Teașcă started coaching in 1955 at Romania's under-18 national team, managing to win its group at both of the 1955 and 1956 European Championships. Afterwards he continued to work with juniors for a while at Dinamo București.

He started coaching seniors in 1958 at Dinamo Bacău, managing to finish in his first season with the club on the fifth place, earning a victory against eventual champions Petrolul Ploiești and two victories over Steaua București. In 1960 he took charge of Divizia B team, Dinamo Obor București with whom he reached the Cupa României final of that year which was lost with 2–0 in front of Progresul București. In the middle of the 1961–62 season he replaced Traian Ionescu at Dinamo București, but only for four rounds as he got replaced by Nicolae Dumitru, the team managing to win the championship at the end of the season.

In 1962, Teașcă had his first spell at Romania's national team, his first game being a 4–0 home victory in a friendly with Morocco, a match in which he debuted eight young players: Gheorghe Dungu, Vasile Sfetcu, Emil Petru, Constantin Koszka, Zoltán Ivansuc, Marin Voinea, Vasile Gergely and Iosif Lazăr. His following two games were a 3–2 loss with East Germany in a friendly and a 6–0 defeat in front of Spain at the 1964 European Nations' Cup qualifiers. His next coaching experience started in 1963 at CSMS Iași where he spent two years, then he went back for one season in the second league at Dinamo Bacău where before leaving the club he advised player Constantin Rădulescu to become head coach of the team who managed to promote it to the first league. In 1967 he had his second spell at Romania's national team but only for one game which was a goalless draw in a friendly with Poland.

In 1968, he went to coach Universitatea Cluj, moving afterwards at Argeș Pitești, then in the 1970–71 season he had his only experience outside Romania at Turkish side, Fenerbahçe where one of his players was fellow Romanian Ilie Datcu, finishing the season on the second place. In the following years, Teașcă worked at FC Galați, Steaua București, Șoimii Sibiu and Universitatea Craiova, at the latter he debuted many young players like Nicolae Tilihoi, Aurel Țicleanu, Mircea Irimescu, Ion Geolgău and Sorin Cârțu, also managing to win the 1976–77 Cupa României but he left the team before the final as he had conflicts with many players.

In the last years of his career he worked at several clubs, including from the Romanian lower leagues like Steagul Roșu Brașov, FCM Galați, Victoria București, Bihor Oradea, Universitatea Craiova and Montana Sinaia, having a total of 323 matches as a manager in the Romanian top-division, Divizia A consisting of 120 victories, 64 draws and 139 losses.

Managing style

Constantin Teașcă was known for trying to implement ideas derived from professional football as demanding quality training grounds in order to protect the playing surface on which the official games were played, also he tried to control the menu of the players, excluding harmful foods and drinks and he cared what his players would do outside of training. However he was also known for his controversial training methods like making players run by carrying bags on their back with 80 kilograms for which he would get in conflicts with them.

"U" Craiova player, Ilie Balaci said about him:"In theory, Teașcă wasn't a bad coach. But he had an incredible style of confounding people. Plus he was using some Stalinist training methods. He made us run for hours with 70–80 kilo bags on our backs. Well, the sack was heavier than Geolgău! How can you make fun of some kids like this?! Teașcă was big only because of the journalists". Another Craiova player, Nicolae Tilihoi said:"For Teașcă, the players were a kind of slaves. When we won, he said it was his merit. When we lost, it was our fault, that we sold him! He had a great deal with prime secretaries, with influential journalists, that's why he had such a good image". Argeș Pitești star, Nicolae Dobrin's conclusion about Teașcă was:"Poor Titi, everywhere he went he made stadiums, fields, only teams he couldn't make".

Works

Constantin Teașcă was also an avid reader and a writer, with witty remarks that made him a celebrity, having written a total of five volumes:
*Fotbal și fotbaliști la diferite meridiane ''(Football and footballers at different meridians)'' (1962)
*Fotbal la poalele Cordilierilor ''(Football at the foot of the Cordilleras)'' (1966)
*Din nou pe meridianele fotbalului ''(Again on the meridians of football)'' (1967)
*Ce rău v-am făcut? ''(What harm have I done to you?)'' (1976)
*Păpușarii ''(The puppeteers)'' (1984)
*Competiții de neuitat ''(Unforgettable competitions)'' (1989)

Quotes

Constantin Teașcă was known for criticizing his players lack of professionalism, especially in his books:
*" Eftimie asks me for permission to stay late in the city with his wife (at a restaurant) until 11 o'clock. I admit them even until 12 o'clock. At 3 in the morning, without his wife but with... a mistress, he was at the "Melody" bar. How can you trust him?"
*" Varga is absent from training for no reason. I checked, it turns out that around 5 p.m. he was under the table in the "Universității" restaurant and then "towed"... via Pantelimon."
*" Varga calls the ambulance at his home, everyone gets impatient, except me, because checking the medically equipped vehicle's route I find that he was transported to... alcohol detoxification!"
*" Pârcălab, swollen from a hard and very... wet night, with his collar up and his head hidden in his coat, like a turtle in its shell, comes to the edge of the field, where I was leading the training session, and tells me that he doesn't feel fit for work. I couldn't resist anymore...and in a minute I told him everything he had done and who he really is. He disappeared like in Iosefini's illusions and after five minutes he was working side by side with his teammates."
*" Pârcălab went to the Federation and complained (or better said he whispered in their ear) that he is a good, decent boy, but that Unguroiu and Vasile Alexandru are taking him to drink. Probably one was opening his mouth and the other was pouring!"
*"Ivan, Uțu, Eftimie, after the team's return from a match in Galați, stopped at a restaurant and didn't leave until the next day, when the place had to be cleaned up."
*" Beldeanu? He smokes like a Turk, he drinks like a circus bear drinks milk and gambles for money like a loser in life! He is the daily customer of the restaurants and incites the players to riot"
*"Sometimes, you were surprised that among those who fixed matches could be Ștefănescu, Balaci, Marcu, Crișan, Cămătaru, because Beldeanu was no longer discussed, he was known for a long time as a genuine Trojan Horse!"
*"When it comes to football, assistant sanitary agents become university professors, plasterers - famous painters, and the spectator in the stands - the most authorized coach. I wasn't upset that I was changed twice from the national team, because I was lost in such a large number of super specialists"

Death

Teașcă died on 30 July 1996 in Bucharest at the age of 73.

Honours

Manager

Dinamo Obor București
*Cupa României runner-up: 1959–60
Dinamo București
*Divizia A: 1961–62
Fenerbahçe
*Süper Lig runner-up: 1970–71
Universitatea Craiova
*Cupa României: 1976–77

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teasca, Constantin
1922 births
1996 deaths
People from Giurgiu
Footballers from Giurgiu County
Romanian men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Romanian football managers
FC Dinamo București managers
FCSB managers
Süper Lig managers
Fenerbahçe S.K. (football) managers
FC Universitatea Cluj managers
CS Universitatea Craiova managers
FC Brașov (1936) managers
Romania national football team managers
Romanian expatriate football managers
Expatriate football managers in Turkey
FCM Bacău managers
FC Argeș Pitești managers
FC Bihor Oradea (1958) managers
Victoria București managers
Romanian writers
20th-century Romanian writers
Romanian male writers
20th-century Romanian male writers
20th-century Romanian sportsmen